How do I get my cat to drop weight and stop begging for food?

lmaskell: How do I get my cat to drop weight and stop begging for food?
I recently moved from an apartment where my cat had another cat friend to play with. I would feed my cat one bowl in the morning and the other cat got feed at midnight and was fed an obscene amount of food. So now my cat bangs on my door and cries all night long to be fed. She probably weighs 19-20 pounds. I need to get her weight down and for her to stop begging. She will lay by her bowl and meow and chase you around the house. I dont give in, I still feed her in the morning, but I am now losing sleep because of it. Any Suggestions?
I just started feeding her all organic food. So I am hoping that will help. I give her a 1/4 of a cup of food at 630am. From the replies (that are all great) Im thinking that at dinner i should give her another 1/4 cup.
In response to the green beans… how does her digestion react to suddenly getting fed human food?
And do you think any of the crying has to do with suddenly being the only cat in the house… Do cats have enough memory to realize her other cat friend is not around?
Yes I am and have only ever fed her dry food. I thought that the wet food was more fattening.
She has not been to the vet in two years, should i schedule an appointment for her to get a check up?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Ken
I would bet that you are feeding dry food. Cats are carnivores and dry foods are loaded with carbs that many cats have trouble processing. Besides obesity, other problems can be caused like diabetes and kidney disease. Canned foods w/o gravy is what is best and after the initial introduction of canned, his eating should settle down and weight should be lost.

Answer by star_lite57
Feed her the same amount of food but divide it into 2 servings. Feed her half in the morning and the other half at night.

Answer by Sherr
For losing weight, bring her out more often. Let her play and run around to burn the fat in her. For the banging, not suggestion.

Answer by JeN
Sounds like my kitten! Who will begin crying at my door at 4:30 in the morning, even though she gets fed at 6 and 6.

Here’s what I have started doing, and it seems to be working: I have a squirt bottle with water next to my door, when she cries I open it and give her a good squirt. This quiets her down for another hour or so. When I get up, if she cries more for breakfast before 6 I squirt her again. The next time she’s sitting quietly somewhere, near meal time, THEN I’ll put her serving in the bowl. She gets 1/3c in the morning, and 1/3c at night, and plenty of exercise!

Be persistent and don’t give up! Good luck.

Answer by M&M
are you feeding her a quality food like iams? hopefully you arent feeding the cheapest thing around. they are loaded with fillers and dont do much for nutrition.

Answer by acjpooh
I have a female cat that did the same thing. She was so overweight, the vet said she’d have diabetes within a year. I bought one of those rather expensive auto pet feeders (the one that holds dry food in a hopper and is programmable up to 3 meals a day) It is a dream. I programmed it to drop at 6am, noon and 6pm. It drops 1/4 cup each time (I have 2 cats) and they never get extremely hungry this way. I also don’t have to be home to feed them on a schedule, and only have to fill the hopper once a week.
For the crying, I did the same thing with the squirt bottle for a week. She learned very quickly that she would get a squirt for crying, but once she figured out the regular schedule of the feeder – life was wonderful. She has lost 4 lbs. The feeder was about 70 bucks, but was worth every dime. I have had it 2 years now, and only changed the batteries once!

Answer by Lisa H
Weigh her food. Make sure it is a consistent amount and split it up in between two feedings. If you find she is not losing weight on the current amount of food cut it back by 10%. Eventually this will get her to lose weight.

As far as begging is concerned, start feeding her fat free treats like fruits or veggies. A can of UNSALTED green beans can do wonders to curb the appetite of your pet. Put a little bit on top of her food. It is merely a filler, and makes them think they ate more than they did. It is very low in calories, and should get the begging to go down.

Also, the more feedings a day, the better it is for the metabolism. Bump it up to at least 2, if not 3.

Also, YES you should take her to the vet. Cats need vaccinations once a year. She should go in for a checkup and boosters.

And while your there, find out the best plan from your vet to get your cat to lose weight.

Good luck.

P.S. The green beans are bland enough that she will do just fine. That’s why you make sure they are UNSALTED. The green beans were a suggestion from my vet for my overweight cat.

Answer by LoveLifeAndOthers
how about getting a high quality food with no byproducts, fillers, corn, soy, wheat, dies, flavvours, artificial preservatives etc…that has a really low serving size. my cats used to be on purina cat chow…until i learned what crap really went in there. so i swtiched to Eagle Pack Holistic Select duck and oatmeal and bam…eating less, stillg etting all the nutrtion they need, better coats and skin, no hairballs, firmer stool…any holisitc or better brand will do this. try eagle pack holistic, wellness, or innova. these are the only companies i recomend and i only feed eagle pack. check out there website eaglepack.com theres a free trial offer for some stuf.f…

iams is not high quality most of it has corn ( a pointless filler) as the first ingredient that cats acutally are mostly allergic to. iams contains byproducts and fillers and artificial preservative theres wears down cats already weak kidneys. science diet is crappy too! cron and byproducts. anything you find at a grocery store is horrible for your cats so is other “premium” brands like science diet and eukanuba…holistic is the safest way to go as long as they get their food from america…which iams did not. and look what happened over 95 companies were recalled.

Answer by RuneAmok
Ken is right.

Even though it looks like you’re feeding a good brand, dry food is still not the best choice for cats. Great for us, but not so much for them.

And it doesn’t clean their teeth.

And by the way, good for you for asking about this! Too many people (myself included) let their pets get fat.

I switched both cats to an all canned diet and it has helped. Not only weight but other issues as well – skin and fur quality, soft stool is now firm, etc.

Check out these articles on obesity. They’re what got me on the road to healthier cats!

Also, because they typically can eat a bit more of a good canned food than they would get if you tried to limit their intake of dry food, they’ll usually be satisified and won’t pester you.